The drugs control, health and industry departments in Andhra Pradesh are to have a common e-platform which is both informative and interactive at the same time with the inauguration of www.aponline.gov.in, the state government's latest initiative to integrate all the activities of all its departments under one umbrella. The portal is being developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as part of a joint venture agreement.While TCS is enjoying 89% of the stake in the project, the state government with just 11% stake has agreed to allow TCS to maintain the portal for the next seven years. The revenue model for the portal is being worked out.
The entire services of the drugs control department as well as the state health and medical services departments will be facilitated through the portal within the next one-year. All license renewals, fresh applications, queries relating to inspections, punitive actions and rules and regulations can all be had from one single source. The monthly reports on the functioning of the departments will be uploaded regularly.The portal is part of the state government's plans for inching towards total e-governance, says S Prakash Rao, special officer, AP online portal, Department of Information Technology and Communications. He said that the portal has compiled comprehensive data from 180 departments and contains 350 forms that can be downloaded. The portal already contains around 2600 web pages.
The portal is being developed in three phases namely, the information phase, the interactive phase and the payment phase. The completion of the final phase would see all the taxes being remitted online by the key industrial sectors in the state. If the departments are already having online payment gateway, those services will be integrated with the new portal.
